The pound has held close to opening levels against the US dollar today following a leak of some comments made by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson relating to Brexit. Despite this lack of movement, the GBP/USD pairing is still trading near its best level since 22 May at an exchange rate of $1.342.

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Mr Johnson didn’t specify what a Brexit ‘meltdown’ would be, but the implication is that the process of leaving the EU may be less smooth than first hoped.

There was an additional warning about the UK ending up with a bad Brexit deal, with Mr Johnson saying:

“The risk is [the deal] will not be the one we want and the risk is that we will end up in a sort of … orbit around the EU, in a customs union and to a large extent in the single market.”

On the other side of the pairing, US dollar traders have been similarly unsettled by President Donald Trump’s combative stance ahead of the G7 meeting.

Mr Trump has attacked the trade policies of both Canada and the EU, which risks further escalation in the already alarming trade war between the US and other nations.

Taking an aggressive tone, Mr Trump took to Twitter to state:

“Why isn’t the European Union and Canada informing the public that for years they have used massive Trade Tariffs and non-monetary Trade Barriers against the US? Take down your tariffs & barriers or we will more than match you!”

Looking ahead, the pound might be affected by this afternoon’s National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) GDP estimate for the three months to the end of May.

A forecast-matching upgrade to 0.3 per cent might raise confidence among pound traders and cause a GBP/USD exchange rate rise before the weekend.

On the other side of the pairing, the US dollar could deteriorate if the afternoon’s wholesale inventories figure for April shows no change in stock levels.

If inventories aren’t reducing, this might indicate reduced consumer spending which can ultimately harm the US retail sales sector.